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Q&A Building educational infrastructure and providing educational opportunities in the developing world is not a simple task. And each country has unique set of challenges and every community has its own needs John J Wood founder, Room to Read www.dnaindia.com epaper.dnaindia.com Mumbai, Tuesday, April 27, 2010 UPFRONT 2 MUMBAI Kantaben Dantani, grandmother of one of the 26/11 victims, dances with Anne Carr, a dialogue practitioner from Northern Ireland, at a workshop organised by Women Without Borders briefcase SALMAN ANSARI.DNA Ashok Chavan, chief minister, talking about Rajasthan governor and former MPCC chief Prabha Rau Tuesday, 27-04-2010 Shri Vikram Samvat 2067, Sake Era 1932, Sun Uttarayan, Uttar Gole, Vasant Ritu, Pratham Vaishakha Shukla Paksha Chaturdashi till 7.56pm, Nakshatra Hasta till 6.41am and after that Chitra till 5.09am, Yoga Harshan till 7.42am and after that Vajra till 4.44am, Karan Gar till 9.06am and after that Vanij till 7.56pm and Bhadra starts. Rahu Kala : 3pm to 4.30pm Yam Ganda : 9am to 10.30am Best Period : 10.30am to noon and 4.30pm to 6.30pm Temperature Maximum 34.6oC Minimum 27.9oC Humidity 75% Sunrise 6.13 am Sunset 6.59 pm Moonrise 4.59 pm Moonset 4.13 am Forecast: Sky condition could be partly cloudy. Maximum and minimum temperatures will be around 37°C and 26°C respectively. High tide 11.17am 4.56m 11.09pm 4.25m Low tide 4.45am 0.42m 5.18pm 1.30m weather&almanac I was shocked to hear about Prabhatai’s demise. Maharashtra has lost a towering personality soundbyte SUICIDE AT WANKHEDE 1| MAN FOUND HANGING FROM TREE IN CHURCHGATE A 35-year-old man was found hanging from a tree near the entrance of Wankhede stadium on Mon- day morning. According to the police, the de- ceased was a drug addict. :He is believed to have committed suicide on Sunday night. On one of his hands there was a tattoo of a snake and a tiger, and on the other a name — Munna Man- ish,” said a police officer. His body was taken off the tree and sent to GT Hospital for autopsy. The police are trying to ascertain his identity. PRESSURE TACTICS 2| COUPLE COMMITS SUICIDE, 5 CHARGED WITH ABETMENT The Amboli police detained five people, including a police officer, on Monday on charges of abet- ment of suicide and extortion. They were de- tained after an Amboli-based Gujarati couple, Prakash Brahmabhatt, 42, and wife Archana, 39, ended their lives on April 23. In their suicide note, the couple had said the five were harassing them. According to sources from Oshiwara police station, the Brahmabhatts had taken a loan and weren't able to repay it. TAXING TIMES 3| 'DANCE, MUSIC, FEAST... ALL THIS SPORT?' The Bombay high court has directed state govt to decide by May 5 whether it will charge entertain- ment tax on IPL games. The court was hearing a PIL initiated by Shiv Sena MLA Subhash Desai which sought that entertainment tax be levied on the T20 matches played in Maharashtra.Earlier in the week, the comptroller and auditor general had slammed the state for giving up Rs4.99 crore due to non-levying of tax on IPL in 2008. Room to Read, a non-profit or- ganisation with presence across various developing countries in- cluding India, works towards em- powerment by focusing on litera- cy for the marginalised and for the girl child. Here, John J Wood, who left his job at Microsoft Cor- poration to found the organisa- tion, talks to Mihika Basu about his plans for India and the sup- port he received during the Mum- bai leg of his visit. What was the purpose of your Mumbai visit and what kind of support did you get? India has been a significant com- ponent of our work and Mumbai is a critical part of our plans. The purpose of my visit to the city was to reach out to the busi- ness community, industrialists and social leaders to support our mission of literacy, girl child ed- ucation and setting up reading rooms for the underprivileged. The response we got is over- whelming. We raised funds that will enable us to start 125 more libraries and sponsor 115 girls’ scholarships in India. What is significant is that till 2009, Rs19 out of every Rs20 for our progra- mmes in India came from out- side India. We want to change that because we believe Indians can change India. We want more Indians to be involved. There’s a lot of capital in India and there’s a huge need (for education) here, so we need to marry both. Why India? India has made great progress economically, but the benefits of this growth have not reached millions of children. Studies es- timate that 35% of the world’s illiterate population is in India. The school dropout rates in In- dia are as high as 52% with ma- jority being girls. So, there’s a need for substan- tial amount of work to be done. With the historic legislation that guarantees Right to Education for all children between the ages 6 to 14, we feel we are at the right place at the right time. What kind of work have you done here so far? In India, we have been support- ing the government’s Sarva Shikshan Abhiyan programme to set up school libraries and our girls’ education programme sup- ports 1,997 girls with scholar- ships here. We have made a significant im- pact on the lives of over 8,25,000 children in India. Our initiatives include establishing over 3,200 li- braries and printing over 6 lakh books for distribution in schools and training nearly 700 school personnel last year. To what extent will the existing programmes be scaled up? We have planned an additional 850 libraries across India in 2010 and intend to support 700 more girls this year. We’ve ini- tiated pilot literacy pro- grammes in a few states and several feasibility studies are in progress. Maharashtra is part of our future plans and we are in the middle of the needs’ as- sessment for the state. What are the areas that Room To Read focuses on? We establish libraries/reading rooms and stock them with chil- drens books in local languages, original Room to Read titles, do- nated English-language books, games, and furniture to create a child-friendly learning environ- ment. We partner with local com- munities to build schools so chil- dren can learn in a safe, child- friendly environment. We provide long-term sup- port enabling girls to pursue, and complete their secondary education. We source new con- tent from local writers and pub- lish high-quality childrens books in local languages. We have established over 9,000 reading rooms globally. It takes around Rs1.5 lakh to set up one reading room. Our partner countries include India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Zambia. Only Indians can change India Kiran Tare He is still an undergrad — both in academics and poli- tics. Aditya Thackeray, the third generation of Shiv Sena’s first family and the party’s GenNext, is trying to make his political presence felt in universities across the state. If it was Mumbai Uni- versity that he paid a visit to last week, Pune, Nashik and Aurangabad are next on his itinerary beginning Tuesday. His target is the senate elections due in these four universities in August. “It is the right time to become ac- tive in the field to change the syllabus and the exam sys- tem through the senate,” Aditya says. “I want to change the age- old syllabus in our universi- ties. I want a liberal, modern and unbiased syllabus. If a student wants to study Lenin, he must get a fair knowledge on Lenin’s achievements as well as his drawbacks,” Aditya told DNA. “At present, our syllabus is drafted according to the policies of the ruling party. This is not fair. A syllabus should be a mixture of knowledge and practical. If a student is studying mass media he must be taught the changes he should expect in the media in the coming five to six years. I think if we have a majority in the Senate we can bring about these changes in the syllabus,” he said. Last week, Aditya called on Chandra Krishnamurthy, the acting vice-chancellor of University of Mumbai, re- garding what he termed “the mess” in the exam system and “put forward the party’s views” on it before the Uni- versity’s administration. “A day after our meeting, Vilas Shinde, the controller of exams, issued a circular apol- ogising for the mess. I would not say that he apologised to the Shiv Sena but it was an apology to the students. This is what we expect from the University: to show honesty and the willpower to bring about changes,” he said. He elaborated on the other achievement: “Now, there will be no need to get the pho- tocopies of the answer sheets for revaluation. The students would be able to apply for the revaluation directly.” The grandson also rises: Aditya wants liberal, modern syllabus Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad universities are next on his list Varsity check Aditya Thackeray, the third generation of Shiv Sena’s first family and the party’s GenNext, is trying to make his political presence felt in universities across the state Divyesh Singh Officers from the Kurla po- lice station on Monday ar- rested the driver who fled af- ter running over a 12-year- old boy and three others at Kurla on Sunday. Around six in the evening, Ahmed Khan tried his hand at driving his uncle’s vehicle at Kapadia Nagar in Kurla. While reversing the Tata Sa- fari, he lost control and hit Asif Khan, 12, and an ice candy cart before crashing into a building’s compound wall and hitting Fatima Khan, 9, Rehan Chaudhary, 12, and Shirazuddin Qazi, 18. When the vehicle stopped, Khan got down, picked up Asif, who had been dragged all the way, and carried him some distance away. But when he realised that the boy was died, he dumped his body and fled. Khan, 20, is a college dropout and the son of a lead- ing scrap dealer in Kurla. On Sunday, he found his uncle’s Safari with the key in the ig- nition, an investigating offi- cer said. He started the vehi- cle and drove it a short dis- tance. “While reversing, he pressed on the accelerator in- stead of the brakes,” the offi- cer said. “That could have led to the accident.” The police arrested Khan from his home in Kurla. They got the vehicle’s regis- tration details from the re- gional transport office. Khan has been booked for rash and negligent driving resulting in death. He was released on bail after being produced in court on Monday. Ayub Khan, whose son died, said the driver should have been booked for mur- der because his negligent driving led to the death of his child. “Had the vehicle not crashed into the wall, a few more people would have died,” he said. “If Khan had taken my child to hospital instead of fleeing, he might have sur- vived. Khan should be pun- ished severely so that it is a lesson for others.” Killer SUV driver held from Kurla Delay kills the purpose of death penalty: Nikam Somendra Sharma A 36-year old diamond bro- ker was arrested by crime branch sleuths on Sunday for allegedly stealing over Rs4 crore worth of diamonds from a Grant Road shop earlier this month. The ac- cused was identified as Ramesh Jain. Joint commissioner of po- lice (crime) Himanshu Roy said the burglary took place on April 14 in the fourth- floor office of Paresh Shah at the Sakina Manzil building near Diamond Market. The next day, when Shah returned to his office, he suspected nothing as none of the locks was broken. But on opening the safe, which too was locked, he found that 2,925 carats of diamonds and silver coins worth Rs10,000 had gone missing. A case was registered at the DB Marg police station. Crime branch Unit II, too, was roped in to probe the case. “It was a perfect crime. There was no clue left by the thief. We inquired with the building watchmen and Shah’s employees, but got no lead in the case,” Roy said. The breakthrough came days later, when crime branch officers learnt that a diamond broker, named Ramesh Jain, had gone miss- ing since the day of the theft. After coming to know that Jain used to visit Sakina Manzil regularly for business purposes, they asked sources to be on the lookout for him. “On Sunday, the police re- ceived a tip-off that Jain would be coming to Rat- nadeep Compound to sell di- amonds to a customer,” ad- ditional commissioner De- ven Bharti said. A trap was laid by a team headed by inspector Dinesh Ahire. Jain was apprehend- ed the moment he arrived. “Searching him we found 1,565 carats of diamonds worth Rs2.65 crore. Shah identified the diamonds as his,” Ahire said. Roy said Jain did the plan- ning two months ago. “Shah’s shop closes at 7pm, and at that time Jain was there at the spot. Since he knew the watchman, Jain gave him money and sent him to buy a sandwich from a distant shop. It took nearly two hours for the watchman to return,” he said. That gave Jain enough time. Taking out the keys to Shah’s shop from the drawer of the watchman’s table, he made duplicate keys. Broker arrested for diamond heist Joint commissioner Himanshu Roy with the recovered diamonds — SALMAN ANSARI.DNA Menaka Rao The delay in execution of death penalty frustrates its very purpose, said Ujjwal Nikam, special public prose- cutor in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case, pitching strong- ly for the process to be expe- dited by bypassing the regu- lar procedure. “The time has come for the government to make a dis- tinction between a regular case and a special case like the 26/11 attacks,” Nikam said in an interaction at the DNA office. He emphasised there was no law specifying that mer- cy petitions should be con- sidered only on the basis of serial number. “In special cases, we should bypass the others in the queue,” he in- sisted. Nikam was referring to the 28 mercy petitions pending with president Prat- ibha Patil. Such petitions are filed be- fore the president after the Supreme Court confirms the death penalty. The president seeks the opinion of the Union home ministry before making a de- cision. “We should have a procedure whereby if the president doesn’t decide the mercy petition within six months, it is deemed reject- ed,” Nikam said. A supporter of capital punishment as a deterrent, Nikam said, “I am in favour of capital punishment if the execution of the sentence is immediate. The purpose of the death penalty is to send out a message to society.” Citing the case of the mur- der of Kisangopal Meghraj Rathi in 1994, Nikam said the death penalty of his three killers was confirmed 11 years ago. “In a mercy petition, one of the accused claimed he was a juvenile at the time of the incident. Mantralaya is still enquiring into it,” he said. On his most famous case till date — the 26/11 terror at- tack trial — Nikam said he was proud to be part of one of the world’s ‘shortest ter- ror trials’. “The 9/11 trial has still not even started,” he said, adding this was the first time the prosecution had ten- dered the evidence of so many formal witnesses through affidavits as opposed to bringing the witnesses physically to court. “Most defences don’t ad- mit formal witnesses and are interested in prolonging the duration of the trial. The de- lay in turn results in wit- nesses turning hostile. I used a little known section in the Criminal Procedure Code and ensured that the time of the court is saved,” Nikam said. About Kasab, Nikam said he had never met anyone as unusual as him. “I have handled trials all over the state, from Bhan- dara to Mumbai. I have dealt with all kinds of dreaded criminals. But I have never met anyone like Mo- hammed Ajmal Amir Kasab,” Nikam said. No law specifies mercy petitions should be considered only on the basis of serial number, says the special public prosecutor The Tata Safari after the accident Divyesh Singh Phising, online fraud, and hacking are passé. In- ternet users will soon face an identity theft. Symantec’s Internet Secu- rity Threat Report, April 2010, talks about the latest threat that has been doing the rounds in several countries across the world. “People would have no idea that Trojans in their com- puters are sending confiden- tial data to a host server that controls the virus,” David Freer, vice-president, Syman- tec (Asia Pacific Japan region), said. “Bank account details or passwords that can enable a person to make banking trans- actions will be passed on to host servers. The same infor- mation can also be sold to criminals who can misuse it for online shopping where checks are minimal.” Once the cyber mafia gets hold of such information, Freer said, they could carry out financial transactions in various countries. The victim would know of it only when the bank informs him/her about the transactions. The victim would be affected in other ways too. Despite filing a complaint, the bank would send his/her name to the cred- it information bureau if he/she fails to clear dues, Freer said. The mafia would not stop at this. They would sell the identity infor- mation for a mere five to ten dollars, he said. A person may be forced to change his iden- tity details in banks and oth- er places to get rid of the cy- ber mafia. “Several Indians use the In- ternet; but they rarely take proper precautionary meas- ures,” an IT expert said. “Peo- ple generally opt for free anti- virus and anti-spam software. But this is of no use when dealing with new viruses.” Cyber security expert Vijay Mukhi said identity theft is at a nascent stage. “But it will not be long before it becomes a ma- jor issue,” he said. “We are adopting European and Amer- ican ways of online banking and financial transactions. Moreover, we do not have any specific law to deal with it.” Cyber mafia out to steal your identity Out of control Around 6pm, Ahmed Khan tried his hand at driving his uncle’s vehicle in Kurla While reversing the Tata Safari, he lost control and hit Asif Khan, 12, and an ice candy cart before crashing into a building’s compound wall and hitting three others In special cases, we should bypass the others in the queue. We should have a procedure whereby if the president does not decide the mercy petition within six months, it is deemed rejected online THREAT
